Weekly Wide Web

Future Shock

I can confidently say this, because a friend in Spain has, practically instantly, sent me audio files from a band that I would have never otherwise heard, from a machine that connects to a worldwide network wirelessly.

I can also say this because I carry a 2 1/2-by-5-inch rectangle of plastic in my pocket that plays music; shows me live video; reminds me of my appointments ("8:30 a.m.: Go to work, dummy"); and also, almost as an afterthought, handles phone calls.

Hell, I'm writing this on a device that can practically pull anything from thin air, whether it be news, pornography or images of adorable animals—or even all three at the same time, were I inclined (which, to be clear, I am not).

So it astounds me that we, as a society, have people screaming to return to policies that were rightfully ridiculed before I was even born—that there are people who want to take a person's right to their body and turn that right over to folks whose moral cues were written thousands of years ago. (For example, a county in Tennessee stripped funding from Planned Parenthood and awarded it to a conservative religious clinic. In the following year, women's health services in that county dropped by 93 percent, with nearly half of the funding going unspent.)

I can't, by myself, change what people believe about economics, politics or cat videos—but at least we live in a time when I can find ideas from all over the globe and get a conversation started, so we can all understand each other better.

"Frankly, I could give a rat's ass. I'm more worried about staying out of World War III, the quickly evaporating middle class and (the) dismal education system, not to mention the prospect of women's rights being set back another 60 years."

I'm not going to lie, folks: I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the methods and madness of my predecessor—and I am doing so during a big part of the year, considering that Club Crawl®, the Best of Tucson® and the forthcoming launch of our music blog are fast approaching. If you have any suggestions, complaints or tips on anything you'd like to see from the folks at the Weekly Wide Web, feel welcome to send an email or drop us a message in the comments.